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India Hicks, Isabel Spearman and Amanda Sheppard plus a host of glamorous editors filled the front rows of the art deco ballroom at The Connaught this afternoon.

Since launching her eponymous label in 2008, Wickstead has fast become a favourite of those in the know. The Prime Minister's wife, Samantha Cameron, regularly wears her designs as did many of the guests at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding. But today she departed from the secret address books and entered the limelight of London Fashion Week in style.

Wickstead's 'Colour Me Beautiful' collection of pastel pool-side looks was inspired by the photographer Slim Aarons. "I find his work incredibly sexy," Wickstead explained. "It is all about ladies who drink champagne and socialise by the pool. I mixed that in with the French Riviera and played on the theme of ladies who lunch, who have tennis lessons, who party, who entertain."

This was evident in the ultra feminine tennis dresses, baby doll dresses, miniskirts, shorts and party dresses all complete with the ruffles and pleats that Wickstead describes as her signature. Billowing dresses and skirts as well as the neater, high-waisted, more commercial pleated dresses dominated the very wearable collection.

Wickstead's Paris house print was the talk of the show and appeared in various incarnations, adding a dash of La Parisienne into the mix. Designed by Wickstead and manufactured in the UK, the print is illustrated with scenes of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe in two colour-ways, and will no doubt be instantly recognisable come next spring. "When I first started the label in 2008 I drafted up the Paris print and used it for a few private clients. I have always been in love with it and always wanted to repeat it and this was the perfect opportunity to do so."

Britain-based and New Zealand-born, Wickstead graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2007 before working in the design studios of Armani, Narciso Rodriguez and Proenza Schouler. In 2008 she launched her eponymous label and in October 2009 opened the Emilia Wickstead Atelier just off Sloane Street in London.